2,369 research outputs found
Impact of external sources of infection on the dynamics of bovine tuberculosis in modelled badger populations
Background The persistence of bovine TB (bTB) in various countries throughout the world is enhanced by the existence of wildlife hosts for the infection. In Britain and Ireland, the principal wildlife host for bTB is the badger (Meles meles). The objective of our study was to examine the dynamics of bTB in badgers in relation to both badger-derived infection from within the population and externally-derived, trickle-type, infection, such as could occur from other species or environmental sources, using a spatial stochastic simulation model. Results The presence of external sources of infection can increase mean prevalence and reduce the threshold group size for disease persistence. Above the threshold equilibrium group size of 6–8 individuals predicted by the model for bTB persistence in badgers based on internal infection alone, external sources of infection have relatively little impact on the persistence or level of disease. However, within a critical range of group sizes just below this threshold level, external infection becomes much more important in determining disease dynamics. Within this critical range, external infection increases the ratio of intra- to inter-group infections due to the greater probability of external infections entering fully-susceptible groups. The effect is to enable bTB persistence and increase bTB prevalence in badger populations which would not be able to maintain bTB based on internal infection alone. Conclusions External sources of bTB infection can contribute to the persistence of bTB in badger populations. In high-density badger populations, internal badger-derived infections occur at a sufficient rate that the additional effect of external sources in exacerbating disease is minimal. However, in lower-density populations, external sources of infection are much more important in enhancing bTB prevalence and persistence. In such circumstances, it is particularly important that control strategies to reduce bTB in badgers include efforts to minimise such external sources of infection
Mapping the Kinematics of the Narrow-Line Region in the Seyfert Galaxy NGC 4151
Using The Hubble Space Telescope's Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph HST's
STIS, observations of the OIII emission from the narrow-line region (NLR) of
NGC 4151 were obtained and radial velocities determined. Five orbits of HST
time were used to obtain spectra at five parallel slit configurations, at a
position angle of 58 degrees, with spatial resolution 0.2 arcseconds across and
0.1 arcseconds along each slit. A spectral resolving power of ~ 9,000 with the
G430M grating gave velocity measurements accurate to ~ 34 km/s. A kinematic
model was generated to match the radial velocities, for comparison to previous
kinematic models of biconical radial outflow developed for low-dispersion
spectra at two slit positions. The new high-resolution spectra permit the
measurement of accurate velocity dispersions for each radial-velocity
component. The full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) reaches a maximum of 1000 km/s
near the nucleus, and generally decreases with increasing distance to about 100
km/s in the extended narrow-line region (ENLR), starting at about 6 arcseconds
from the nucleus. In addition to the bright emission knots, which generally fit
our model, there are faint high velocity clouds which do not fit the biconical
outflow pattern of our kinematic model. These faint clouds occur at the
turnover points of the outflowing bright clouds. We suggest possible scenarios
that could explain these rogue clouds: (1) backflow resulting from shocks and
(2) outflow outside of the bicones, although the latter does not explain how
the knots are ionized and accelerated. A comparison of our observations with a
high-resolution radio map shows that there is no evidence that the kinematics
of the NLR clouds are affected by the radio lobes that comprise the inner jet.Comment: 30 pages, 15 figures (some color), accepted for publication in the
Astronomical Journal. Downloadable versions of the paper with high resolution
figures/images are available here:
http://www.chara.gsu.edu/~crenshaw/NGC4151_kinematics.pdf <--PDF Version
http://www.chara.gsu.edu/~crenshaw/NGC4151_kinematics.ps <--PS Versio
A comparison of cultivation techniques for successful tree establishment on compacted soil
Soil compaction is often responsible for the poor establishment of trees on restored brownfield sites. This paper examines the root development, survival and growth of Alnus cordata, Larix kaempferi, Pinus nigra and Betula pendula after cultivation with complete cultivation, a standard industrial ripper and a prototype ripper. The industrial ripper was used in one pass across the experimental plots and the prototype ripper in both two and four passes. While the maximum root depths, after five growing seasons, attained by trees were similar to the target soil loosening depths for the cultivation techniques, the total number of roots suggests that root development was not uniform across the soil profile. All treatments significantly increased both the maximum root depth and total number of roots compared with the untreated control; the complete cultivation had approximately double the number of roots compared with the other treatments. Larger average root diameters and a higher percentage of coarse roots also suggest that roots experienced physical restriction in the control, two-pass prototype and industrial ripper plots. Similarly, while all species had attained significantly greater height growth on the treated soils compared with the control, the height of A. cordata, L. kaempferi and B. pendula was greatest after complete cultivation. The results demonstrate that complete cultivation is the most effective method of alleviating soil compaction for tree establishment. © Institute of Chartered Foresters, 2008. All rights reserved
Simultaneous Ultraviolet and X-ray Observations of the Seyfert Galaxy NGC 4151. I. Physical Conditions in the X-ray Absorbers
We present a detailed analysis of the intrinsic X-ray absorption in the
Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 4151 using Chandra/HETGS data obtained 2002 May, as part
of a program which included simultaneous UV spectra using HST/STIS and FUSE.
NGC 4151 was in a relatively low flux state during the observations reported
here, although roughly 2.5 times as bright in the 2 --10 keV band as during a
Chandra observation in 2000. The soft X-ray band was dominated by emission
lines, which show no discernible variation in flux between the two
observations. The 2002 data show the presence of a very highly ionized
absorber, in the form of H-like and He-like Mg, Si, and S lines, as well as
lower ionization gas via the presence of inner-shell absorption lines from
lower-ionization species of these elements. The former is too highly ionized to
be radiatively accelerated in a sub-Eddington source such as NGC 4151. We find
that the lower ionization gas had a column density a factor of ~ 3 higher
during the 2000 observation. If due to bulk motion, we estimate that this
component must have a velocity of more than 1250 km/sec transverse to our
line-of-sight. We suggest that these results are consistent with a
magneto-hydrodynamic flow.Comment: 42 pages, 14 figures. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical
Journa
Probing the Kinematics of the Narrow-Line Region in Seyfert Galaxies with Slitless Spectroscopy: Observational Results
We present slitless spectra of 10 Seyfert galaxies observed with the Space
Telescope Imaging Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope. The spectra cover
the [OIII] 4959, 5007 emission lines at a spectral resolving power of ~9000 and
a spatial resolution of 0.1". We compare the slitless spectra with previous HST
narrow-band images to determine the velocity shifts and dispersions of the
bright emission-line knots in the narrow-line regions (NLRs) of these Seyferts.
Many knots are spatially resolved with sizes of tenths of arcsecs,
corresponding to tens of pcs, and yet they appear to move coherently with
radial velocities between zero and +/- 1200 km/s with respect to the systemic
velocities of their hostgalaxies. The knots also show a broad range in velocity
dispersion, ranging from ~30 km/s (the velocity resolution) to ~1000 km/s FWHM.
Most of the Seyfert galaxies in this sample show an organized flow pattern,
with radial velocities near zero at the nucleus (defined by the optical
continuum peak) and increasing to maximum blueshifts and redshifts within ~1''
of the nucleus, followed by a decline to the systemic velocity. The
emission-line knots also follow a general trend of decreasing velocity
dispersion with increasing distance. In the Seyfert 2 galaxies, the presence of
blueshifts and redshifts on either side of the nucleus indicates that rotation
alone cannot explain the observed radial velocities, and that radial outflow
plays an important role. Each of the Seyfert galaxies in this sample (with the
exception of Mrk 3) shows a bright, compact (FWHM < 0.5") [O III] knot at the
position of its optical nucleus. These nuclear emission-line knots have
radial-velocity centroids near zero, but they typically have the highest
velocity dispersions.Comment: 28 pages, 5 figures (on 9 pages), accepted for A
Quasiparticle Interactions for f-Impurity Anderson Model with Crystalline-Electric-Field: Numerical Renormalization Group Study
The aspect of the quasiparticle interaction of a local Fermi liquid, the
impurity version of f-based heavy fermions, is studied by the Wilson
numerical renormalization group method. In particular, the case of the
f-singlet crystalline-electric-field ground state is investigated assuming
the case of UPt with the hexagonal symmetry. It is found that the
interorbital interaction becomes larger than the intraorbital one in contrast
to the case of the bare Coulomb interaction for the parameters relevant to
UPt. This result offers us a basis to construct a microscopic theory of the
superconductivity of UPt where the interorbital interactions are expected
to play important roles.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure
Interplay of crystal field structures with configuration to heavy fermions
We examine a relevance between characteristic of crystal field structures and
heavily renormalized quasiparticle states in the -- Anderson
lattice model. Using a slave-boson mean-field approximation, we find that for
configurations two or three quasiparticle bands are formed near the Fermi
level depending on the number of the relevant orbitals in the
crystal field ground state. The inter-orbital correlations characterizing the
crystal field ground state closely reflect in inter-band residual interactions
among quasiparticles. Particularly in the case of a singlet crystal field
ground state, resulting residual antiferromagnetic exchange interactions among
the quasiparticles lead to an anomalous suppression of the quasiparticle
contribution of the spin susceptibility, even though the quasiparticle mass is
strongly enhanced.Comment: 8 pages, 7 color figures, in JPSJ styl
Magnetic Behavior in RRhX (R = rare earths; X=B, C) Compounds
We report on the magnetic behavior of RRhB (R = La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Gd, Tb and
Tm) and RRhC (R = La, Ce, Pr and Gd) compounds crystallizing in the cubic
perovskite type structure with space group Pm3m. The heat capacity data on
Pauli-paramagnetic LaRhB and LaRhC indicate a high frequency vibrating motion
of boron and carbon atoms in the unit cell. Ce is in -like nonmagnetic state in
both the compounds. Pr compounds show a dominant crystal field effect with a
nonmagnetic singlet ground state in PrRhB and a nonmagnetic quadrupolar doublet
in PrRhC. Compounds with other rare earths order ferromagnetically at low
temperatures except TmRhB in which the zero field evolution of magnetic
interactions is relatively more complicated. The electrical resistivity of
GdRhB decreases with increasing temperature in the paramagnetic state in the
vicinity of T, which is rarely seen in ferromagnets. The behavior is discussed
to be arising due to the short range spin fluctuation and a possible
contribution from Fermi surface geometry.Comment: 14 Figs and a text fil
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